The Death of Prince Owere and the Exile of Ozolua: Inside Benin's Royal Succession Crisis

The death of Ewuare and a fourteen-day reign

The succession crisis began after the death of Ewuare, one of the rulers associated in Benin historical tradition with the kingdom's fifteenth-century territorial expansion.

Ewuare left several sons, including Ezoti, Olua and Okpame. In Egharevba's traditional chronology, Ezoti succeeded his father around 1473.

Ezoti's reign was exceptionally short.

Egharevba records that he ruled for only fourteen days. During the ceremonies associated with his coronation, the new Oba was struck in the forehead by an arrow that had been poisoned.

In Egharevba's account, the attacker was a boy whom Ezoti had previously mistreated by withholding food. The ruler reportedly forgave the boy after he expressed remorse, but Ezoti nevertheless died soon afterwards.

The account also connects the red-bead forehead ornaments worn by certain Benin chiefs with a covering used to conceal or control the bleeding from Ezoti's injury.

These details belong to Benin's transmitted royal history. The circumstances of the shooting and the explanation attached to the chiefly ornament have not been established through contemporary records of the incident.

Ezoti's death left another question for the royal household: who should inherit the throne?

The proposed successor was his son, Owere.

This decision is particularly important in Sargent's examination of Benin's political institutions. He identifies Ezoti and Owere with the early development of the Edaiken title, associated with the crown prince, and their membership of the Uzama Nihinron, the senior body involved in royal installation.

Sargent argues that the nomination of Owere represented a departure from the collateral succession practices that had previously allowed kingship to pass among brothers within the royal lineage.

The nomination meant that the throne was to pass from Ezoti directly to his son rather than automatically to one of Ezoti's surviving brothers.

It also placed Owere's uncles within the circle of possible competitors for power.

Sources: Egharevba, 1968, pp. 19–20; Sargent, 1984, p. 108.

The journey that ended in Owere's death

Egharevba's account identifies Okpame as the prince sent to bring Owere from Esi to the capital so that the young heir could assume the throne.

Owere did not arrive.

According to Egharevba, Okpame arranged for two pits to be prepared along the route. Owere and his mother were then buried alive.

The historian records that Okpame returned to the capital and reported that Owere had died from natural causes. The killing was subsequently discovered, and the chiefs and people of Benin expelled him.

Sargent's account likewise identifies Okpame as the person responsible for the deaths of Owere and his mother. Ebohon places the killing at Esi and identifies Okpame as Ezoti's brother and Owere's uncle.

The three authors preserve the same central accusation, although the material supplied does not establish that their accounts are independent corroborations of the event.

Nor does the surviving evidence permit a reconstruction of an investigation, trial or formal legal proceeding against Okpame.

What the tradition records is that he was held responsible and removed from the capital.

Okpame went into exile at Ora, a community associated with his mother's family.

This was not a minor interruption in his political career. Under the succession arrangements described by Sargent, Okpame remained a member of the royal lineage but was excluded from the immediate struggle over the throne after the deaths of Ezoti and Owere.

The killing attributed to him had also complicated the position of another surviving prince: Olua.

Sources: Egharevba, 1968, p. 20; Sargent, 1984, pp. 108–109; Ebohon, 2005, pp. 90, 109.

Why Olua initially refused the crown

With Owere dead and Okpame banished, the Uzama Nihinron turned to Olua, another son of Ewuare.

He did not immediately accept.

Sargent states that Olua feared violent retaliation from Okpame. Egharevba similarly records that Olua was unwilling to become Oba because he believed his brother might kill him.

The refusal demonstrates the seriousness of the threat attributed to Okpame in these royal traditions.

Although he was no longer in the capital, the chiefs could not assume that his exclusion had ended the danger of another confrontation within the dynasty.

The Uzama consequently sought another candidate.

Their choice was Princess Edeleyo, also recorded as Edeloyo, a daughter of Ewuare and sister of Olua.

Her nomination introduced another dimension to the succession dispute: the possibility of a woman occupying Benin's highest royal office.

Princess Edeleyo and the succession that never happened

The account of Edeleyo occupies an unusual place in Benin royal history.

Egharevba records that the princess accepted the nomination and was invested with the title of Edaiken. She was proceeding towards Uselu, the settlement traditionally associated with the crown prince, when she became ill.

The illness was described in the historical account as a "female complaint".

Egharevba places the incident at a location subsequently known as Ogbe Edeleyo. According to his narrative, the princess remained there for several days without recovering sufficiently to continue the succession process.

She therefore did not become Oba.

Egharevba further records a tradition that the Uzama and Eghaevbo enacted a prohibition against women subsequently occupying the throne. He also describes a ritual associated with Edeleyo's memory, which later crown princes were expected to perform when passing the site on their way to Uselu.

The incident is significant because it is connected in Benin tradition with the exclusion of women from royal succession.

It would, however, be inaccurate to present the reported illness or the enactment that followed as independently documented constitutional events. They survive in historical accounts based substantially on traditions transmitted long after the period in question.

Sargent provides an additional interpretation.

He accepts that the traditional explanation attributes Edeleyo's exclusion to an illness, but considers whether fear of Okpame may have discouraged her from proceeding.

Sargent presents that possibility as speculation, not as a documented alternative explanation.

The distinction matters. The tradition records Edeleyo's illness as the reason her nomination failed; Sargent proposes that the political danger surrounding Okpame might also have influenced the outcome.

With Edeleyo excluded, the kingmakers once again faced the problem of finding an acceptable ruler.

They returned to Olua.

Sources: Egharevba, 1968, p. 20; Sargent, 1984, p. 108.

Olua accepts the kingship

Olua eventually agreed to become Oba.

His acceptance did not remove his fear of Okpame.

Both Egharevba and Sargent record that Olua sent one of his younger sons to Eho to watch the approaches to the Benin capital and prevent an attack by the exiled prince.

Sargent identifies the son as Olua's youngest and states that he established himself at Eho, where he prevented Okpame from approaching the city.

Egharevba records that the prince subsequently became the Ogie of Eho, the ruler of the settlement.

The decision placed a member of Olua's immediate family in a defensive position outside the capital. It also indicates that the possibility of Okpame's return by force remained part of the political calculations surrounding Olua's reign.

Sargent characterises Olua's accession as relatively peaceful and describes the early reign as one of comparative order.

Egharevba preserves a more troubled portrait of Olua's government.

In his account, Olua was generous and sometimes paid debts incurred by other people. His spending was said to have placed considerable pressure on the royal treasury.

The ruler's generosity also became the subject of traditional stories concerning his dealings with ordinary people and palace servants.

One account concerns an elderly woman to whom Olua gave part of a cow. After falling on her way home, she reportedly blamed the Oba for her misfortune rather than thanking him.

Another describes the royal winemaker refusing a request for wine. In a further episode, an official responsible for royal dogs reportedly told Olua that the animals under his care had already been allocated to other chiefs or used for sacrifice.

Egharevba presents these encounters as examples of the difficulties Olua faced in securing obedience.

Such anecdotes should not be confused with independently verified incidents. Their value lies in the way Benin royal tradition depicts the relationship between the king, his officials and the wider population during Olua's reign.

Olua's son Iginua also features in the accounts of the period.

Sargent states that Iginua held the Edaiken title while Okpame was in exile. He further records traditions linking Iginua's political advice to consultations with Ifa priests.

Egharevba's account gives Iginua a prominent role in the tensions that developed within Olua's household and government. The prince is also associated in Benin tradition with the foundation of the Itsekiri kingship.

These traditions place Olua's reign within a broader history of royal appointments, competing advisers and the movement of Benin princes beyond the capital.

Sources: Egharevba, 1968, pp. 20–21; Sargent, 1984, pp. 108–109.

Was Ozolua's exclusion also a religious struggle?

Sargent raises another question about the conflict between Owere, Olua and Okpame: whether rivalry among the princes reflected competing religious interests within the Benin court.

His dissertation examines the relationship between political authority and religious institutions in the wider Benue Basin and the Kingdom of Benin.

He observes that the succession involved three principal male candidates and considers the possibility that they were associated with different religious constituencies.

In this reconstruction, Ezoti and Owere may have represented conservative interests within the court. Sargent suggests that the Uzama's preference for Owere could have reflected support for traditional institutions rather than simple attachment to one branch of the royal family.

He also proposes that Okpame's association with Ifa may have contributed to resistance against his nomination.

Olua's eventual selection is therefore interpreted by Sargent as a possible compromise between factions that were unwilling to accept Okpame but still wanted a royal successor.

The evidence does not permit these propositions to be treated as established facts.

Sargent explicitly acknowledges the difficulty of linking each succession candidate to a particular religious institution. His argument is an interpretation of the political and religious circumstances described in the available traditions.

The killing attributed to Okpame is itself sufficient to explain why the royal councillors might have opposed his candidacy. A separate religious cause cannot be presumed.

Nevertheless, Sargent's discussion shows why historians have examined the succession struggle as something more complicated than a personal contest among brothers.

The Uzama had responsibilities in the choice and installation of rulers, the Edaiken title was connected with the designation of an heir, and members of the royal family could seek support through religious and political institutions.

The succession of an Oba therefore involved more than identifying the next eligible prince.

Source: Sargent, 1984, pp. 108–109.

The prince who remained outside Benin

The traditional chronology places the reigns of Ezoti and Olua in the period beginning around 1473.

Those dates should be treated as approximate. Anthropologist Robert Elwyn Bradbury, whose research examined the chronology and succession practices of Benin's Obas, warned that the earlier royal genealogies and reign dates cannot be established with the same confidence as later periods for which European documentary evidence becomes available.

What is clear from the accounts assembled by Egharevba, Sargent and Ebohon is that Okpame had not permanently disappeared from the political history of the kingdom.

He remained at Ora, outside the capital, while Olua occupied the throne.

Benin's later traditions would return repeatedly to the prince's exile, not merely because of the death of Owere, but because events following Olua's reign eventually brought Okpame back into contention for the kingship.

After Olua's death, senior chiefs attempted to govern Benin without immediately installing another Oba. Egharevba dates this arrangement to approximately three years.

The next stage of the story involves that experiment in government, the disorder reported in the capital and an unusual tradition about the royal jester sent to persuade the exiled prince to return.

It was on his return from Ora that Okpame became known as Oba Ozolua.

Sources: Egharevba, 1968, pp. 20–22; Bradbury, 1973, p. 23; Sargent, 1984, pp. 112–114; Ebohon, 2005, p. 109.